Farewell to a Hero

The more I tried to write this post, though, the more I realized there was a fundamental disconnect at play. Therefore, I’ve broken it up into three parts.

Part 1: These People are All Crazy Assholes

This is like the third day in a row where they’ve thrown a party and had to justify it in light of recent events. “I know Will was just buried, but he would want us to cavort with a stripper! Will loved dick!” “I know half this party is in mourning, but what can cheer people up like a wedding?” “I know Hope’s new husband attempted to murder her and was then killed himself last night, but surely a party will boost her spirits!” Do these people ever just go take a nap? There are like 300 episodes of Friends on Netflix. Take a day off!

And then there’s crazy-ass Julie, who was like, “In light of the fact that Hope was almost killed last night, let’s tell a touching story about how we all got trapped on a death cruise, which ended with Hope dying!” Very zen, you old bird.

Then Ciara went and trumped every nuclear-family-obsessed Salem youth of the past 50 years with her public insistence that Bo and Hope remarry right this minute. Girl, your mom married another man last fucking night! What if they discussed it and decided to wait? What if they aren’t sure they want to be married? Although after the way she campaigned for them to bone, I’m not sure any of this logic would register.

Meanwhile, Bo is just staggering around Salem gripping his head and nearly passing out, but people are letting him drive. No wonder there’s a car accident any time we see someone behind the wheel — the roads are filled with drivers like Bo and Caroline, who can barely function when they’re standing up, let alone operating heavy machinery.

The timeline remains so batshit insane that I almost (almost) have to believe that, in honor of the 50th anniversary, it’s a throwback to the James E. Reilly Days, when everyone would be celebrating Halloween, and then no one would go to bed and eventually it was four weeks later and they were all going to Thanksgiving dinner even though it was actually the same never-ending day. I don’t get why they couldn’t have inserted a new morning or two over the past week, or even played with the form a little and done an episode that spanned several days or weeks, primetime-style, as it focused on Bo. He found out he had a tumor, like, six hours before he dropped dead! Hope has had two husbands die on her in under 24 hours! Rafe should run for the hills, or he’s never going to see Christmas.

Part 2: OMG I Can’t Handle This

Issues of pacing and basic human decency aside, I thought they knocked Bo’s death out of the park. Peter Reckell and Kristian Alfonso were absolutely fantastic; they never lost that true supercouple chemistry that made them so popular in the first place.

I appreciated that they spent Friday’s episode focusing solely on Bo/Hope and on scenes that related to their storyline, too. It really did feel like a fitting, touching exit for a beloved longtime character — so much so that it was trending on Facebook.

Of course, it’s phrased in such a lame way that absolutely nothing seems noteworthy — like, couldn’t that describe 80% of the episodes that have aired since the early 80s? But Bo’s death was a big damn deal, and content-wise, I felt like they did it justice. The walk down Memory Lane was really moving, with the tree and the raffle tickets and Bo dressing in the red shirt and leather jacket like in the old scene. Really well done.

Except for one thing: they could spring for “All of Me” to have Daniel and Nicole dance around the Pub, but they couldn’t get Bope’s 80s theme song one last time? Ugh.

Part 3: Miscellany

Did anyone else catch that one of the montages of flashbacks made it look like Kayla was having memories of her brother getting it on with Hope? That was… awkward. As was the fact that it began snowing in the park as Hope cradled Bo’s body in her arms.

Like, what?! It’s cold enough to snow, but everyone’s running around in t-shirts with light jackets? Salem, I do not understand you.

Meanwhile, Jennifer and Eric never even addressed that drunken kiss he planted on her, and I couldn’t even tell if we were supposed to get the sense that she was uncomfortable around him and wanted to get away.

Let me tell you something, Jennifer Rose: when a guy looks that good, and you haven’t gotten laid since Daniel Jonas like two years ago, you put his possible drinking problem out of your head and stop fretting about your kids and go for it. Okay?

28 Comments on “Farewell to a Hero”

OMG! The first part of your post made me LOL. I almost spit my drink. You are so right. The past few weeks (in Salem time) have been pretty much a blood bath, and we’ve had more parties and celebrations…geez. Now Thanksgiving is next week! I can feel the “I’m thankful for..” speeches lining up. It’s a three day week for DOOL, so do you think they’ll manage a funeral and Thanksgiving dinner in that time frame? I feel like it’s been the same day for a month!

Putting that aside, I too thought the send-off for Bo was lovely, and that Kristian and Peter did an excellent job. The little nods to how the show first brought them to us were so bittersweet. And, my god, how luminous was the young KA?! Those eyes. She’s still so gorgeous, but in that wedding dress (horrible 80’s head-dress aside) she was literally glowing. I found it absolutely fitting that Bo basically drifted off in Hope’s arms.

I have to give a nod too to MBE, who has been absolutely excellent throughout this storyline. I know there are folks who have said she’s being too hard on Steve, but I’ve found her to be totally in character for Kayla. For me, she’s been the stand-out performer. Everything about her reactions has been so real. i can’t say enough good things.

I’m glad they pretty much dedicated the show to Bo and Hope on Friday (yes, very fitting). I was afraid they were going to try and cram Abby’s unless labor pains in there as well!

I so agree with everything that’s been said. The ridiculous timelines make it impossible to think that DOOL is able to celebrate 50 years since one day REALLY equals at least a week or two or three. The silliness of Ciara’s incessant need to have her parents get it on (wink, wink) and then remarry within a day or two of Bo coming home and Hope barely escaping death was really unbelievable! Hope was inconsolable, depressed beyond belief (as she should have been) and barely able to form a sentence just yesterday! Do the writers really think that DOOL’s loyal fans are buying these ridiculous timelines without question? Surely we can’t be the only ones left scratching our heads!

Yes, I too, was in tears on Friday with the Bo/Hope episode. Yet, somehow I can’t honestly believe Bo actually died in Hope’s arms. I mean, it makes sense on one hand, and I loved the montage of their special moments, but on the other, is Hope going to leave him dead in the park to get someone to come help her? WTF?!! And then is Hope the one who is left to tell the whole GD family that Bo is dead? Or will Kayla do the honors? I just don’t it sometimes.

Personally, I would like to rewrite the ending just a bit. Let’s have Bo collapse in Hope’s arms, but Steve or someone (maybe Rafe) come looking for them, find Bo still breathing (only barely), and rush him to the hospital. Then Kayla, Steve or Hope can break it to the whole family and friends so they all have the opp to go to Bo’s bedside to say their goodbye. Then when Hope is alone with Bo, he comes to for just a moment for the final scene. That would surely raise ratings and draw out the sadness, tears and yank the heartstrings for more than just an hour, giving Peter a proper Salem sendoff! But that’s just me…..

It’s weird, because it wouldn’t be that difficult to account for the passage of time. There was NO point in the last 8-9 episodes where they could’ve had people go to bed and then wake up again? Bo and Hope have gone out and come home like five times. Order a pizza and sit on the damn couch!

I absolutely lost it towards the end coming to Bo’s passing…totally crying. wow. not to take away from the scene but i must admit I was thinking about my pit bull Danger who was killed last June during this also……it just broke my heart all over again watching this.
Bravo Days. and my beautiful beautiful boy….you rescued me as much as i did you. xxxooo

thank you so much. it’s awful not having his heartbeat in my house anymore. he did not deserve what happened to him. i really miss him and he was a BIG guy….22″ circumference head! my baby boy….
love to you.

Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed your insightful commentary! Thank you! Yes, the timeline makes me shake my head in disbelief! But the acting soared and the memories stirred up by those video clips of Hope and Bo warmed my heart. Of course I was wrecked when Bo died so quickly. I felt cheated. But now I think it is for the best. If Bo had lived longer, viewers might have had to endure some maudlin, manufactured sad scenes which the lesser actors (like Cierra–sp?) would have butchered. As it played out, PR and KA got to end their long TV relationship with tour de force performances! Makes me proud to say I watch DOOL!

PS—I heard the song played as Bo died was sung by his real life wife..(?) ….nice move, but it would have been better to play Bo and Hope’s trademark song.

I do agree that we got the most punch out of doing it this way. It wasn’t diluted at all. The more I think about it, the more I think it might’ve been interesting to do an episode that had a different structure than the normal daytime episode — like, “The Last Week of Bo Brady” or something. It could’ve done this in the same screentime but maybe it wouldn’t have felt as insane because there would time passing between scenes and acts. No doubt that PR and KA knocked it out of the park, though.

Fun fact: Reckell’s wife, Kelly Moneymaker, was a member of the 80s-90s R&B group Exposé, and she began doing a LOT of music for the show in the 2000s (when the budget began to drop). I think they might’ve stopped using her after PR left in 2012, but I’m not at all surprised that they used one of her songs for this.

You should write for the show! Yes an episode chronicling a week in the life of Bo Brady would have been poignant and appropriate–afterall, Days just lost one of its seismic characters. Now that you mention it, I was kind of disappointed Days did not have some kind of on screen thank you or airtime message to the fans from the entire cast during the 50th anniversary celebrations. The writers just kept cranking out the episodes. Perhaps it would have been nice to just take a moment and acknowledge the milestone/or do something out of the ordinary to commemorate PR’s departure.

as heart wrenching as it was I gotta say this was the best play out ever on this show….. it always cracked me up to hear their ‘young’ voices….especially Hope. in the beginning she was Really Squeaky!
How the hell is she gonna survive all this?

It’s crazy how much her voice has matured! And I don’t know — I want to see her with her children and family. Pleeeeease don’t rush her into a new relationship. If something’s going to develop with Rafe, I want it to take six months to a year and grow out of friendship and their work partnership.

so agree…….she needs tons of time to recover emotionally physically every-lly. but you know SOT…..for all we know she’ll be engaged in a month. hope not.
after a nice vacation it would help her to help other women who were stalked/abused…..maybe have salem open a small non profit center for women to be at…….yeah, that’ll happen.

I’m pissed! If this was how it was going to go down why waste all that time with Bo being held prisoner?! He gets back to Salem just to die 24 hours later!! They could have given Bo and Hope much more time than that. So Hope’s been widowed twice in a day, that’s gotta be a record even for a soap.

How do you kill Bo freaking Brady who has got to be the top heartthrob in all of Days 50 year history!! I get all the real life back stage stuff but why couldn’t they have just sent Bo away for some type of treatment? Just something that leaves the door open for his return without making him a family abandoning a$&hole.

I made the mistake of listening to Adele’s new album while watching Days. Let me tell you DO NOT listen to her song All I Ask while watching the last bit of Friday’s episode! I went into full fave ugly cry like I just got a new car on the Oprah show!
While I’m complaining I don’t get the point of aging Chase? Is anyone planning his fathers funeral? Does anyone care about his well being? His dad died yesterday and these people are all throwing parties wrapped up in their own drama! I’m betting Chase is going to fall for Claire but it would have made much
more sense to me to have some random Jennings relative come for Chase and be done with him.

The fact that she has lost two husbands in the span of 24 hours is nuts. It’s also one of those DOOL facts I am going to love referencing for years to come, a la Marlena falling off the terrace and landing on Sami.

I feel like Bo had to die if PR wouldn’t commit long-term, because this way Bo isn’t off someplace being a terrible father and husband — and let’s be real, they’ll just have him turn alive if/when the occasion strikes, anyway. After the way Andre waltzed in and was like, “Hey, I’m alive,” and no one even blinked, I wouldn’t put it past them.

I find it weird that they aged Ciara and Chase when they did, as opposed to two months from now when this story has passed. I guess they wanted the new Ciara to have shared screentime with her father? It struck me as incredibly weird that Chase was just left to his own devices while everyone went to another damn party.

I can justify the party…Did you know that Bo’s Birthday is November 9th, 1962 so, he died on his 53rd birthday if not, the day after! How screwed up is that? I’m not sure what day it is in Salem it seems like Abbie has been at that cabin for weeks.
I don’t cry that much so, I can honestly say I haven’t cried that hard since EJ’s death. The tribute to Bope complete with reminiscing was beautiful, kudos to KA and PR. I liked how Bo was dressed in the red t-shirt and black leather jacket like he wore back in the day.

So, I expect this week to be another heart wrencher as the friends and family are told about Bo and Hope will probably take solace in Rafe’s very capable arms. But what about Abs? Won’t someone, someone, ANYONE get their heads out of their asses to realize she’s in trouble? Oh yeah, I forgot. The wedding was only a day or two ago when Jen wondered why she wasn’t there, but trusted the stupid texts Ben sent on Abby’s phone. Why hasn’t Chad gone to JJ or Jen or Daniel or SOMEONE besides the police to tell them of his last phone call with Abby and the clue she gave him that she was in trouble? Will Ben kill the midwife? Will Abby have the baby in the cabin? Will she be rescued? Stay tuned……

I’m finding it weird that Chad hasn’t gone to Jen yet. Or that they never followed up on Jen texting Abigail and asking her to call. Like, she forgot about that and went to a party instead? Mother of the Year!

If Jennifer didn’t get a text or call returned from JJ with in two hours she would go nuts! I feel like since JJ returned he got the brunt of Jennifer’s hovering and micro-managing; St. Abigail has her life together graduated college (on the 8 year plan), has a good job (handed to her), has good morals *cough*, and is marrying/having a child (supposedly) with bodacious Ben (only the third guy she slept with) who is Prince Charming (not another Dimera). I hope Jennifer saved room for the crow she will be eating.

i am with you all on this abigail/ben (what a DICK)/baby-labor debacle. and her mother has nary a care about her? i am on mondays epi becasue i can’t wait for the next recap so: when she was texting chad and getting away with it i was ready to kill someone when before she pressed SEND she screamed so loud she just gripped that phone…and ben caught her. REALLY???? jesus…. did she have to text a mini book? she could have sent something short enough to get it to him….in any other world.
More emotional heart breaking torture continuing on with the death park scene with Hope. OMG i just can’t…… the stupidest part of that was the guys were there ready to take Bo away….but then steve lay down next to him to blubber on Bo “my Bro!!” then he takes his stupid leather and covers Bo’s FACE WITH IT??? WTF?